


Those Summer Nights

by rhymeswithpapaya



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, First Love, Grease AU, Homophobia, Jealousy, Jean is Danny, Levi is Rizzo because it's perfect, M/M, Marco is Sandy, Nerd Marco, Pining, Punk Jean, rated T for language and drinking, stuck in the closet, which makes Eren Kenickie obviously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 01:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1670003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhymeswithpapaya/pseuds/rhymeswithpapaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summer lovin', had me a blast... summer lovin', happened so fast...</p><p>Jean brags about the cute girl he dated in France over the summer when he meets up with his friends for their senior year at Trost High. Cue the new transfer student, Marco Bodt, a freckled boy strangely similar to the "girl" Jean was telling his friends about, who couldn't be happier to see Jean again.</p><p>Yes, this AU is inspired by the musical "Grease." I'm shameless, and Marco is the perfect Sandy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Summer Nights

**Author's Note:**

> My friend and I joked that Marco was just like Sandy and I couldn't get it out of my head. I've based this on "Grease" but I've adapted it to take place now, rather than in the 50s. There are also parts I've cut down and I've added things to make sure that the SNK characters stay true to themselves. Jean isn't exactly like Danny Zuko, but I thought there were enough similarities there to make the connection between them (the way he treats Marco, for instance). I love Jean/Marco to death, and I kept my other pairings in here as well. I hope I didn't ruin anyone's favorite musical and/or manga/anime!
> 
> Best enjoyed with multiple listenings to the "Grease" soundtrack, if I do say so myself.

Attending senior year at Trost High seemed like a pointless chore for Jean Kirschstein. He’d just arrived home from a summer-long trip to France with his family a week ago, and the classroom was the last place he wanted to be. If only he was still sightseeing in Paris with that freckled cutie by his side…

“Jean! Long time no see, man!” Connie shouted and jumped on him, nearly bowling him over and into his locker. He looked down at his friend, past his buzz cut, and saw the crazy grin on his face. “How was France?”

Jean straightened his leather jacket and took his time replying. It was hard to keep the haughty tone out of his voice as he downplayed his European vacation. “It was fine. You know, we do the same stuff every summer.” And for the most part, that was true. He didn’t enjoy spending time with his parents at home, and being in a foreign country didn’t make a difference. But he was dying to tell someone about his summer hook-up without sounding too cocky.  His friends were always dying to take him down a peg.

Before Jean could begin to over exaggerate, his least favorite person came into view. Eren Jaegar was his reluctant friend at best, mortal enemy at worst. If he hadn’t had a massive crush on Eren’s sister, Mikasa, during freshman year they probably never would’ve spoken. And in the end, Eren was massively protective of his sister and they spent most of their time getting into fistfights. Now, he walked up to Jean with Reiner Braun and Annie Leonhart, the two most intimidating people Jean knew of, besides Mikasa when she was defending Eren. They, along with Jean, Connie, and another girl named Ymir, were the school’s resident deadbeat delinquents.

“Look who trotted home from France,” Eren jibed. Reiner and Connie laughed, fucking traitors. It wasn’t the first time Jean’s long face had been called equine. The joke clearly didn’t have any effort behind it. He ran a hand through his recently re-dyed blonde hair in frustration. This year, he wouldn’t let Eren goad him so easily, he’d decided. He’d be the bigger goddamned man. However, he had to admit to himself that punching Jaegar in his dumb face sounded appealing already.

Jean glared at him, but tried to stay diplomatic. “Yeah, well where were you all summer?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Who are you, Mikasa?” Eren waved him off. Mikasa had mothered over Eren since their own had died in middle school, much to Eren’s exasperation. “I got a job, which is more than any of you losers can say.”

Connie threw his arm over Jean’s shoulder conspiratorially. “You’ll never guess where he works now.” Jean didn’t try to guess, despite Connie’s puppy-like insistence. “He works at old man Shadis’ body shop! Sweet, right? I think I’m gonna take my ride over there, see what I can get worked on for free…”

Eren smacked Connie across his shiny head, but it was more playful than cruel. “Yeah right. You know I’m gonna be working on my car whenever I can.” Eren had a tremendously loud, gas-guzzling, piece of shit Camaro that he was determined to fix up. He had an affinity for illegal street racing and Jean couldn’t even condemn him for it when he was one of the ones that raced him. The only difference was Jean could get his parents to buy him a nice car, whereas Eren practically stole parts to feed his junkie-like obsession.

 “So did you get any action? French chicks are supposed to be easy, right?” Connie asked, going back to the conversation from before Eren showed up. This was his most pressing question for Jean.

Reiner let out a booming laugh. “You’re asking the wrong guy, Connie.” He was tall and built, every inch of him menacing, but he somehow knew everyone in the school and always had a genial air about him. Annie stood by his side and she looked at Jean judgmentally. It was out of character for her to show any expression, so Jean knew she agreed with Reiner.

“Fuck you, Reiner,” Jean scowled. It didn’t matter if it was Reiner who’d said it; he wasn’t going to let anyone insult his pickup skills. “For your information, I did hook up with this one chick. She was really hot,” he bragged, subconsciously puffing out his chest.

Eren took the chance to punch Jean in the gut when he was busy preening. Jean let out a howl and dove, grabbing a fistful of Eren’s collar on his too-similar leather jacket, winding up his arm to hit Eren in the nose. It was okay to get into a fight if Eren instigated it, he decided. The first fight of the new school year was sending Jean a heady rush of adrenaline. It was almost too bad that Reiner stepped in between them, effectively blocking Eren from Jean’s retribution for his wounded ego.

“Suicidal bastard,” Jean yelled at Eren. “What the fuck was that for?”

Eren just laughed, his wide green eyes gleaming manically. “Sorry, Seabiscuit, I guess I didn’t meet my summer quota with you in France and all.”

The bell rang and Jean shrugged Reiner off. He was almost embarrassed about how excited he’d been to get into a fight with Eren, too.

“See you guys at lunch! I gotta go find Sasha,” Connie was the first of the group to break off. He spun around and walked backwards, talking to Jean. “Don’t think you’re off the hook, Kirschstein! I’m going to hear all about this chick later!”

Jean let out a rare smile. He would let the promise of lunch get him through his first few classes.

 

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

“Do I look alright, Ymir?” Marco asked nervously. It was his first day of school in a new country and he didn’t want to provide anyone with a reason to pick on him if he could help it. He was walking to lunch with his American cousin, who he hadn’t seen leave the house that morning and thus couldn’t ask her opinion of his attire. He wore simple jeans with a nice, collared shirt rolled up at the sleeves.

Ymir barely even glanced at him. “How should I know?” she drawled, hooking her arm further around her petite girlfriend, Krista. Besides their tanned skin, freckles, and tall builds, the cousins weren’t so similar. Ymir was known for being aggressive and sardonic, whereas Marco was agreeable to a fault. The only one that gained Ymir’s affection was Krista.

Krista swatted at her, blushing like always. Marco was glad to already know at least one person besides his cousin, and no one could deny that Krista was an angel. “You look great, Marco. Don’t be nervous, so far everyone thinks you’re really sweet! Come on, I want to introduce you to some of my friends!”

“Thanks,” Marco beamed back at her. “I’d love to meet them.” He did have to admit that his day had gone well so far, thanks to his sunny disposition. Most students were curious about the new transfer student, but there hadn’t been a chance to start up a real conversation with anyone.

Ymir separated from them then; it wasn’t her lunch period, so she had to go to class. Marco stayed by Krista’s side as she led him to the cafeteria.

 “So, this is Trost High,” Marco said. He looked around the big cafeteria, full of students reuniting with their friends and wondered what his year would be like living in the United States.

“Do you miss your old school?” Krista asked. They got into the blessedly short lunch line together.

Marco nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, I wish I was there right now. It’s not like I’m not used to heartbreak, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Uh, ah,” he blushed. He hadn’t meant to give anything away, or to feel sorry for himself. Marco’s summer romance would stay in the summer; thinking about it any more than he already had since it ended would only make him more upset. “It’s nothing, really. I don’t mean to be dramatic. I met someone when I was in France this summer, but we decided to break up when we both went home.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Krista frowned. She looked sympathetic, though; her soft blonde hair was practically a halo around her shoulders.

“It’s okay. We had a good time together, so there’s nothing to be sorry about.”

Krista smiled in return. “How did you two meet?”

“How did who meet? Who’s this? Look at all those freckles!” an energetic voice interrupted. Marco turned around and saw a girl with huge glasses and a messy ponytail looking eagerly up at him.

“Hanji, this is Marco,” Krista introduced him. “Marco, this is my friend Hanji.” The three of them walked with their lunches to a table in the corner of the cafeteria. An unimpressed looking boy was already sitting there with a girl shoveling a large tray of food in her mouth with abandon.

Hanji stuck close to Marco’s side. “You have an accent, Marco. Are you from the Netherlands? I hear a trace of Dutch.”

Marco sat down between Hanji and Krista, one of his signature toothy smiles on his face. “Yes, I do speak Dutch! French too, actually. I’m from Belgium.” He was surprised anyone could recognize his accent.

“Belgium!” she exclaimed, eyes gleaming behind her lenses. “What are you doing here? And why attend Trost, for that matter?”

“Ugh, Trost,” the dark-haired boy across from him scowled.

Krista leaned over to Marco. “That’s Levi. And she’s Sasha,” she explained. Sasha was currently devouring a pudding cup, but she still waved at Marco cheerily.

“Look at the bright side!” Hanji elbowed Levi. “We’re seniors this year.”

“You gonna rule the school with me, shitty glasses?” he smirked at her. She cackled gleefully in response. “Let’s make them beg for it. In fact, I’m gonna make someone beg for it at your party this weekend,” his clear gray eyes lit up maliciously.

Marco had no idea what Levi was referring to, but Hanji returned her attention to him soon enough, ready for his response. “Ymir’s my cousin. My parents thought it would be a good experience for me to go to school in America for a year,” he answered her question from before.

She nodded thoughtfully. Then, she pulled out a little notebook and started writing in it furiously. Was she dismissing Marco? He couldn’t be sure. Nobody else seemed to mind her behavior, so he figured that it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“You’re Ymir’s cousin?” the girl with crumbs on her face, Sasha, asked. Marco nodded. “Huh, I never would have guessed. I mean, I guess the freckles match. But you have, like, a  _million_.”

“Are you going to count them all?” Levi asked her sarcastically.

Marco blushed, remembering when someone had tried to do just that only a month ago. It had ended with sweet kisses instead of an actual numerical result.

Two new students approached the table. The boy, a short blonde with a bowl cut, pulled up next to Sasha, immediately looking over at Marco and extending his hand.

“Hi! You must be the new student from Belgium. I’m Armin Artlert, feel free to ask me if you need help with anything!” he shook Marco’s hand firmly. It seemed that Marco had found the female Krista. Armin glanced up to the girl standing behind him. She had chin-length black hair and a red scarf pulled nearly up to her nose. “This is Mikasa.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Marco,” Marco introduced himself. “Are you enjoying your first day back at school?”

“Someone already snuck a fake snake in Armin’s bag,” Mikasa deadpanned.

Armin just shrugged. “It’s nothing I can’t handle. At least it was fake.” Mikasa didn’t say anything else.

Krista’s group of friends was very diverse, to say the least. Marco had always had an outgoing personality, so it wasn’t long before they were involving him in their lunchtime conversations. Soon, everyone was talking about what they’d done over the summer.

“What about you, Marco? Did you do anything fun before you left Belgium?” Armin asked him during a lull.

Marco nodded. “I was in France with my parents and siblings for a couple months. My mother is French so we stayed with her relatives.”

“What did you do?”

“He met a girl,” Krista interjected. “He had a nice little summer romance.”

“Uh,” Marco coughed. He nervously played with his fingers in his lap. “I met a guy.”

The table was indifferent about Marco’s new information. Marco had worried that his new friends wouldn’t be accepting of him being gay. Then again, his cousin’s girlfriend was sitting beside him.

Krista put a hand on his shoulder, making him look up. “Sorry to assume! Anyways, what was this guy like? Was he cute?”

“He was sort of… special,” Marco said, staring at the tabletop with a blush.

Levi scoffed. “There ain’t no such thing.”

Marco ignored him. He hadn’t even realized that Levi was listening in on the conversation; he looked like he was about to die of boredom. “He was really romantic, in fact.”

“Was it love at first sight?” Hanji asked.

Marco bit his lip. “I wouldn’t say that. But we really warmed up to each other and then…”

“And then you were doing it like bunnies!” Sasha finished for him.

“W-what! No! It wasn’t like that!” Marco insisted, his face getting ever hotter.

“True love and he didn’t lay a hand on you? Sounds like a creep to me,” Levi said.

“He wasn’t. He was a gentleman.”

“Hey, what was his name?” Hanji asked.

Marco beamed. “Jean. Jean Kirschstein.”

The group around him laughed uproariously. Levi silenced them with a cold look. “Well I think he sounds great,” he said sweetly. “Maybe if you believe in miracles, prince charming will show up again someday. Somewhere unexpected.”

“Do you really think so?” Marco couldn’t help but ask. He was a desperate, hopeless romantic and optimist. But the bell rang, and then everyone started to get up and leave the cafeteria to go to his or her classes, parting with “Nice to meet you”s and “See you later, Marco!”

Krista looked at him uneasily. She fiddled with the end of her hair. “Let’s go to class.”

 

 

__________________________________________________________

 

 

“Did you see that new guy in homeroom today?” Eren asked. “He didn’t look half bad.”

Jean had the last lunch shift, but Eren, Connie, and Reiner all had it with him. They all sat outside on the bleachers, enjoying the sunshine as they smoked cigarettes, hoping not to be caught by the principal.

“Aren’t you hooking up with Levi right now?” Reiner asked.

Eren shrugged. “Sometimes.”

Jean blinked. “What? Is that something that happened this summer?”

“Jealous?” Eren asked, blowing smoke in Jean’s face.

“Hell no. I wouldn’t date that tight ass.”

“That right there is the whole reason to date him,” Eren snickered at his own suggestive joke.

Jean covered his ears, groaning. “Ugh, I don’t want to hear that, man.” He had no qualms with any of his friends being gay, but Jean wasn’t, and thus didn’t want to hear too many details.

“Then tell us about the girl you got with this summer,” Reiner suggested.

“Do you really want to hear all the horny details?” Jean teased.

He heard a cacophony of “You’re the worst,” and, “You’re killing me, Kirschstein.”

Jean shook with laughter. “Alright, alright, I’ll tell you.” He was milking this for all it was worth. He didn’t like to admit that he had a paltry number of conquest stories compared to some of his friends. This was payback for all the times they’d lorded juicy details from him.

“She was really hot,” he began. “Freckles everywhere.” He took a long drag on his cigarette. “One second we’re just walking down the street, next thing I know she’s just pulling me into some corner jumping on me, I swear.”

Eren and Reiner looked dubious, but Connie was eating it up. “What else?” he asked excitedly.

Jean had a huge, shit-eating grin. “She was good, if you know what I mean.”

“Like you even know what that means,” Eren mumbled under his breath.

“You calling me a liar, Jaegar?”

“I’m calling you a liar, horse-face,” Ymir shouted from the bottom of the bleachers. She ran up the steps, grabbed Jean’s head in her hands, and began to mercilessly mess up his carefully styled hair. “What are we talking about?”

Reiner high-fived Ymir when Jean finally wrestled himself free. “His summer sex life.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll call bullshit on that,” Ymir agreed with Eren. Then they all ignored Jean and started listening to her talk about her cousin that was in town or something. Jean wasn’t listening. He was stewing over his lost glory.

After school, everyone went to see Eren’s piece of crap car out in the student parking lot. Jean was surprised that the poor excuse for a motor vehicle had made it to the school in one piece. Eren was postulating with Connie about improvements that could be made to the engine and Jean fought back a yawn.

He was startled to see Levi by his side when Sasha and some of the others made their way over to the group. Jean didn’t dislike Levi per say, but there was something about the guy that always made him feel more stupid than normal. Even Armin managed to make his own intelligence seem less intimidating than Levi did.

“Hey Kirschstein, I’ve got a surprise for you,” Levi smirked.

“What?” Jean asked warily. He saw Hanji pulling someone along behind her as she walked up to the group and for a moment, his heart stopped.

Tall. Broad shoulders. Soft, dark hair in a dorky haircut and wide, expressive eyes. The biggest smile he’d ever seen. Freckles.

It was the boy he fell in love with over the summer.

“Marco?”

“ _Jean?_ ”

“Marco! What… what are you doing here? I thought you were going back to Belgium!” Jean exclaimed. He was moving towards Marco, putting his hands on his shoulders, looking up and down and trying hard not to pinch himself because there was no way it was real. There was no way Marco was really in front of them. Not after they’d had to say such a painful goodbye.

“My parents sent me to live with Ymir this year,” Marco told him, breathless. It looked like he was shocked, too. “I had no idea you go to school here!” Of course Jean had friended Marco on Facebook, but Jean was rarely on it and didn’t share a lot of personal details on the social media site. They hadn’t even talked about their families that much when they were together. Marco’s shoulders trembled underneath Jean’s hands. “I can’t believe… Jean. I feel so lucky to have found you here.”

“Who’s this? How do you know him?” Connie asked from somewhere outside Jean’s realm of perception.

 _Shit_.

If Jean had felt elated and weightless before, reality was crashing back in on him now. He’d lied to his friends about who he’d really been with over the summer because he still found it hard to believe that he’d actually dated Marco, for however brief a time. He wasn’t gay. He didn’t want anybody to know about Marco. All his life, his hateful parents had drilled into him that being gay was wrong. Having gay friends was a nice insult to them, but he felt overwhelmed and terrified to think that he could be gay, too. Marco was the exception, he’d told himself. They were only together for fleeting summer days, so it didn’t mean anything. Couldn’t mean anything. There was a sick pressure building in his gut, telling him to back away from Marco, so he did.

 _It didn’t mean anything_. He repeated it in his head like a mantra as he finally broke eye contact with Marco.

Jean cleared his throat. “This is Marco. We met in France.”

“Hey Marco, I’m Connie,” Connie waved. “Hey, if you were in France, maybe you met the girl Jean was dating this summer. Did you? Is she real?”

Jean didn’t want to see Marco’s reaction, but he couldn’t stop himself from peeking up through his bangs to look at him. The Marco Jean knew was an open book, and that hadn’t changed in the few weeks they were apart. Hurt and disbelief were clearly written on his face. “The girl Jean dated in France?” he asked, and Jean looked at Marco pleadingly. But Marco steeled himself, finally understanding. Finally seeing Jean for what he really was.

“No, sorry, I didn’t know that Jean was dating someone this summer. I don’t even know him that well, really,” Marco said, his voice monotone and barely hiding a tremble. He turned away from Jean, biting his lip. Jean had seen that face before, the night that they parted; Marco was fighting back tears.

Krista went over to Marco’s side. “Let’s go meet Ymir,” she said, and steered him away from Jean. She paused to shoot a look back at Jean, though, and it was clear what she meant.

She knew. There was no way she didn’t know about him and Marco, and now Krista was silently accusing him of breaking Marco’s heart. Levi must’ve known too, otherwise he wouldn’t have said he had a surprise for Jean. Knowing that even a couple of people knew his secret had Jean staggering for breath.

Still, Jean had never felt like a bigger asshole in his life after watching Marco leave with Krista. His friends still circled around Eren’s car were looking at him curiously, but he didn’t know what to say. He felt like he’d just lost everything precious to him. He’d lost those sweet memories of summer nights spent in Marco’s arms.

Maybe he didn’t deserve them in the first place.


End file.
